


Victory Stands On The Back Of Sacrifice

by Private95



Series: Supergirl One-Shots [7]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 03:25:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8873911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Private95/pseuds/Private95
Summary: “Your mother… is behind CADMUS. She’s their leader.”Lena’s stomach dropped.“You’re lying.” Her voice is low and cold.“I wish I was.” Supergirl almost whispered. “But she kidnapped me and now she possesses a virus that can wipe out the whole alien population in National City.” The hero stepped closer to Lena, placing her hands on Lena’s shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “I need you to help me. Help all those innocent lives!”The two stood in a starring contest for what felt like hours when Lena growled out, “get. Out.”





	

“Now I need your help.” Lena had never seen Supergirl like that. She was tensed, visibly nervous and uncomfortable. She thought that it was probably something serious.

“Of course, anything!”

Supergirl looked Lena dead in the eyes and Lena fought the urge to take a step back and shiver. There was something heavy in her gaze that Lena can’t put a word to.

“I need help finding your mother.”

That… she wasn’t expecting.

“My mother?” She huffed out a laugh.

There was a heavy, long pause that unnerved Lena even more than the look on Supergirl’s face.

“Your mother… is behind CADMUS. She’s their leader.”

Lena’s stomach dropped.

“You’re lying.” Her voice is low and cold.

“I wish I was.” Supergirl almost whispered. “But she kidnapped me and now she possesses a virus that can wipe out the whole alien population in National City.” The hero stepped closer to Lena, placing her hands on Lena’s shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “I need you to help me. Help all those innocent lives!”

The two stood in a starring contest for what felt like hours when Lena growled out, “get. Out.”

* * *

Lena stared at the almost empty bottle of ridiculously expensive whiskey, as she mulled over what Supergirl said about her mother.

Lillian wasn’t saint. Supergirl was right, she was cold and harsh and Lena would shudder every time she’d think about her childhood and some separate moments that were forever engraved in her brain. She remembered all the harsh words and actions the woman directed at her and Supergirl’s words didn’t seem that far from the truth.

She didn’t want to believe it. She still wanted to hope that the woman that raised her, wasn’t as bad as other people thought she was. Or as Lena _knew_ she could be.

Maybe it was the haze of the alcohol or her finally accepting what she knew for years, but she decided to ‘agree’ to help Lillian and see what she’d find.

* * *

Lena felt like a complete fool when she walked through the labs of CADMUS with her mother as the woman showed her the projects, the weapons, explaining their plans and what they wanted to achieve.

And all those words, menacing smiles, the cold tone sent shiver down Lena’s spine, making her stomach tie itself in knots from disgust and primal _fear._

That continued for a week. Lena would help with small things, small projects. She suspected it was to test her. And she saw all the scrutinizing looks. All of them waiting for her to show that she was a spy. But no one knew that Lena was there. She was avoiding Kara and Supergirl, doing this whole ‘investigation’ on her own.

Soon, she started to work with the virus Supergirl told her about. She was working on creating the missile for now, they didn’t let her to the virus-creating itself, but she had seen some of the schemes and she already had some ideas of how to destroy it, but she needed the full access. She hoped she’d be given it soon.

* * *

“Lena.” She turned from her work to look at Lillian.

“Yes?”

“Come.” Was the order, said in a tone that didn’t expect disagreement.

She followed.

They went down into the lower levels. Lena didn’t like the look on her mother’s face. Even more so than usual. They stopped in front of a door that was guarded by six men.

Lillian turned to her. “Consider this a small test.”

“A test? On what?”

“On your loyalty. I know how brilliant you are. And if you pass this test, I would like you to work with the virus.”

Lena trembled on the inside. Here it was. The chance. She wouldn’t miss it.

“Of course.”

When they entered the room, Lena wished she could turn back and run.

* * *

Supergirl knelt in the middle of the room; bruised and bloody, hands clad in what Lena suggested were kryptonite handcuffs. She wanted to cry, to scream at her mother, but she couldn’t. She had to finish this.

Lillian passed her a small case and as Lena opened it, it took everything in her not to drop it.

A syringe. With five little bottles full of bright green liquid.

She turned to her mother, face as passive as it was for the past week.

“Prove yourself, my dear girl. Show me that you’re the Luthor I raised you to be.”

With a calm expression, Lena went over to Supergirl, crouching before her. She placed the case with the injections on the floor besides them and lifted the blonde’s face up, making her look at her.

The look of hurt and betrayal was clear as day in those blue eyes. Lena’s stomach turned. She took a deep, measured breath, before whispering, as softly as she could, hoping that Supergirl could still pick up what she was saying with her sensitive hearing.

“She said that if I do this, she’ll allow me to work with the virus. And I already have an idea how in make it inert.” Lena picked up the syringe and one of the bottles. The look on Supergirl’s face when she saw the bright green liquid made Lena want to throw up. “But I don’t want to do this.”

With a shaky breath, Supergirl said, just as quietly. “You have to. Do everything she tells you to do.” The blue eyes watched the syringe being slowly filled with the liquid. “You’re the hope for all those innocent lives. Be their hero.”

“What’s taking so long, Lena?” Lillian called out, clearly impatient and suspicious.

“Just reminding Supergirl why she shouldn’t have trusted a Luthor, mother.” Lena said in a cold tone, putting the empty bottle back into the case and standing up. “I’m so sorry.” She whispered, looking Supergirl in the eyes.

“Don’t be. Do everything you need to and destroy the virus.”

Lena fisted blonde matted hair, tugging Supergirl’s head back, exposing her neck. She pressed the tip of the needle to the trembling vein and listened as the alien’s breathing became faster and louder with every second. Lena looked down at the shaking _crying_ woman and whispered, barely holding herself together.

“Forgive me, if you can.”

She pressed the needle down, piercing the skin and slowly emptied the whole syringe.

The screams of pain and pleas to make the burning stop would follow her for the rest of her life.

* * *

Lena excused herself, when she received the access card and praise from her mother. She said she needed to move some of the meetings at L-Corp before she went into the lab to see what progress they’d made with the virus.

She stumbled into a bathroom and barely made it to the toilet before she threw up. She cried as she clutched her head.

Five.

Five kryptonite injection in the spawn of two hours.

Screams she never knew a living being could emit.

The seizure that took over Supergirl’s body after the third injection.

Lena wanted to just curl in a ball and cry and hope that all of that was just a bad dream. A nightmare she’d wake up from at any moment.

But what made her throw up again and tremble harder, was the fact that she recognized those blue eyes that silently begged her not to give yet another injection.

With trembling hand, she took out her phone and found ‘Agent Danvers’.

Lena hoped it was just a nightmare.

* * *

It was a nightmare. A nightmare that was happening in real life.

She _just_ made the virus inert when the DEO stormed the facility. They arrested everybody.

As Alex found her, Lena told her about what happened to Supergirl. The look on the agent’s face partly confirmed Lena’s biggest fear.

Alex told her to follow one of the teams outside as she and some other agents went to search the facility.

As Lena sat by the ambulance, and the medics checked her up, she heard the commotion and then watched tall black man carrying Supergirl out of the building. Her body limp, skin white as snow and veins visible with their pale green color. A sob wrenched her body.

It was her fault.

 _Her_ fault.

 _She_ did it.

She cried harder when she saw Agent Danvers — Alex — collapse onto her knees, her body shaking. The next moment a man kneeled next to Alex, hugging her, letting the woman cry.

Lena didn’t need any more confirmation.

She sobbed harder.

* * *

Lena stood in the DEO HQ.

She stood to the side, watching the Danvers family, holding each other and crying as they looked through the window into the ward, where Supergirl — Kara — laid. Unconscious, pale and oh so small.

She didn’t have the courage to go near them. Because it was her fault. It was because of her.

They probably hated her with all their might.

She shrank in on herself when she saw Alex walking over to her. The agent stopped a step away from Lena. The two stood, looking at each other for what felt like a lifetime.

Both broke down in the exact same moment. Alex brought Lena into her arms, both clutching at each other.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry, Alex!”

The two slowly sank to the floor, never letting go and both sobbing.

* * *

It was a month and two weeks since the accident. A week since the long painful and tiring lawsuit against her mother — no, Lillian Luthor. She couldn’t tell what was more exhausting, the suit itself, or the hoard of journalists that seemed to follow her _everywhere._ More so than usual.

They called her _The Last Luthor._ It was too dramatic. Even for her.

Lena was returning to her office from the board meeting. She closed the door behind her as she walked over to her desk, eyes on the tablet, looking through the reports, when—

“Hey.” Lena dropped the tablet and whirled around. She froze, hand going to cover her mouth.

There, by the coffee table. Bright smile, shining eyes… stood Kara. Dressed in jeans and running shoes and a hoody. Glasses perched on her nose and hair in a ponytail. Her smile widened as she stepped aside and showing take-out boxes that littered the glass table.

“Jess said you’d missed lunch. Again.”

The silence stretched and Lena felt a headache from how loud her heart was in her ears.

“Why are you here?” Lena choked out after a while. She watched the smile on Kara’s face drop and she looked confused.

“Erm… Okay, yeah. I woke up a couple of days ago, but Alex and Eliza didn’t let me leave until they were sure I could at least _walk_ on my own. And Alex told me about what you’d done that night and that you know about Supergirl and the DEO. And… I think I’ve missed you and wanted to thank you and I wanted to surprise you and—”

“Thank me?” Kara was taken aback by the sheer _shock_ in Lena’s voice. “Kara, for _what_?”

“Um… for saving the whole city, duh?”

“Kara. I’ve hurt you!” Lena was becoming angry now. That wasn’t making _any_ sense!

“Um, yeah, I’ve told you that those were my emergency cookies, but you ate them anyway, so yeah, I’m gonna be traumatized forever now, but I don’t think—”

“Are you fucking serious right now?!” Kara faltered again, and that made Lena angrier. How could Kara not understand what she was talking about?! “Five, Kara! Five kryptonite injection! Giving to you by _me!”_

“Oh, Lena…”

“Don’t ‘Lena’ me!” the brunette sobbed, walking over to Kara and grabbing her by the hoody, seething with rage. “I caused you pain! I made you scream like no other living thing can from the pain _I_ have caused you! I’d almost _killed_ you! And you come here after being in a coma for almost two months bringing me lunch and smiling at me like nothing had happened?! You- you-” Lena broke down, burring her face in Kara’s neck, hugging her tightly, relishing in the feeling of the warm strong steady _alive_ body!

Kara’s fingers waved through Lena’s hair, massaging her scalp, her other hand ran up and down the woman’s back, all the while she gently hummed and rocked the two of them. She started murmuring gentle words, hoping to calm Lena down.

“I have nothing to forgive you for. You’ve done what you had to. You saved them all. You were the hero I couldn’t be in that moment. You’re so good and smart and beautiful. And what happened in that room wasn’t your fault. It was Lillian’s and I will never blame you for that.”

Kara picked Lena up and moved to the couch, where the two stayed seated for a long while, until the brunette finally calmed down.

Lena ate the long cold food still seating across Kara’s lap.

She was afraid that the moment she lost contact with the blonde’s body she’d wake up and it all would be a dream.


End file.
